Lychee Light Club

Not a lot of revisiting value but certainly worth a read. Good size on the physical copy.

this manga was AMAZING. idk why some ppl didn’t like it, i mean to each there own. but me personally i rlly loved it. it is a one shot meaning that there’s only one book BUT the author actually did make i believe 2 prequel books called “our light club” and it’s abt the club before. the thing is it’s all in japanese and there was no official translation for those two books. but this book was rlly good and i highly recommend. it’s a dark fantasy horror/comedy/romance manga. and the art is beautiful i couldn’t stop taking pictures !

I like weird but this one really weirded me out. I was, however, well written and illustrated.

this book was wrapped in plastic so when i opened it, so it had a horrible smell from the ink. they must've printed the book then wrapped it right away, they normally wrap manga's with adult content so i kinda expected it to be wrapped. all i need to do was just let the book sit out for a few hours then the smell was gone.other than that, i enjoyed this book

This is Usamaru Furuya's manga respect to the play of same name, and also to Suehiro Maruo (who also starred in the original play, says the epilogue), if it wasn't desperately familiar with the Kato-like masques that fascist headgear can give, and the exploitation of childhood fantasy.The story is a one-shot, so I won't spoil much. The sweetness Furuya can be known for is at play in the role of Lychee, a giant robot with a naive, almost "Iron Giant" sensibility and a body fueled by lychee fruit. The horror of Maruo is on display in the more or less cardboard cut-out characters of the underground club; they exist to drive home the thoughts and insecurities of the author(s) (societal critique alert?), not to push the story forward. Like filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, Furuya seems to love the outsider and the grotesqueness of the unknown; the sympathetic monster is a reflection of the misunderstood side of budding adolescence and group think. Those familiar with Hideshi Hino or Hanakuma know the themes of basic exploitation enough to know what you're getting yourself into.The story revolves around middle school drama and themes of alienation, fantasization, and of course the fetishization that is included in going to an all boys' school. The ideas presented vary from completely ridiculous to outright shadowing of Hollywood tropes. None of it really detracts from the chaos you came for, though none of it is original either.Still, it's a classic among ero-guro fans, and I'm glad to have it in English, finally. Furuya's building up his American repertoire nicely with the folks at Vertical, and a (Japanese language) prequel is in the works! Buy this and show Vertical they need to translate that ASAP.

It came in perfect condition, and was even a little bigger than I had hoped. <3If you haven't read the two prequel graphic novels ahead of this tho, I wouldn't buy this book otherwise you will be very confused.

Considering my nephew's very positive reaction and instantaneous reading of this book I'm assuming that he was thrilled with the story. I myself am not familiar with the series.

"Among you there is one who will betray me." Thus speaks Zera, the head of the Light Club, a sinister society of high school boys bent upon a perverse pursuit of eternal youth and beauty. Although they seek youth and beauty for themselves, raging adolescent hormones mean they pursue it in the bodies of others. To this end, they are kidnapping girls and women off the street, vivisecting those who do not live up to their high aesthetic ideals to confirm their unworthiness. Once they at last find the perfect girl, they will place her on the pedestal. Literally.Unfortunately, actually finding the perfect girl is a tall order, and it is not something that these boys can accomplish by themselves. Therefore, they build a humanoid robot powered entirely by the lychee fruit to serve as their proxy out in the world. Programmed to believe that he is human, this robot, named Lychee, is tasked with finding their perfect girl. He succeeds. But as the Light Club descends into recrimination and violence, and the specter of betrayal lurks ever nearer, it may just be that this robot turns out to be the most human of them all...Lychee Light Club is based upon a 1985 play of the same name performed by the Tokyo Grand Guignol, which manga artist Usamaru Furuya saw live as a teenager. The show's promotional materials were produced by Suehiro Maruo (Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show; Ultra Gash Inferno), who is famed in Japan for his pioneering eroguro manga. Eroguro stands for "erotic-grotesque"--the visceral images of sexually explicit situations combined with maximally explicit images of human viscera. Tentacle porn, as epitomized by Toshio Maeda's infamous Legend of the Overfiend anime and manga, is the apotheosis of the eroguro genre.However, the eroguro drawn by Furuya here is not of the tentacle porn variety. Although as a manga artist he has become renowned for the three-dimensional, sculptural aspect of his illustrations, in this book he is true to the master--Lychee Light Club's art is stiff, stylized, and, in spite of the base physicality of much of the subject matter, strangely, paradoxically alienating. Indeed, the (homo)eroticism manages not to be alluring, and the spilled blood and guts do not seem quite human. This is intentional, and the degree to which Furuya is able to pull this delicate balance off speaks to his sublime creative mastery.In fact, one of the very few things in this manga that seems particularly (and peculiarly) human is the robot Lychee, and his story of humanity is actually every bit as compelling as the parallel story of betrayal within the Light Club. This, again, is intentional. The ultimate message seems to be that simply being human does not necessarily guarantee one's humanity. Yet, on the other hand, the cruelest things we do emanate from our most human of desires and frailties. It's a good lesson, and it makes Lychee Light Club farmore than just another eroguro sequential art spectacle. Highly recommended.-- Casey Brienza

Llegó a tiempo, es un buen manga está ingles

Definitivamente, um dos mangás mais incômodos que tenho lido. Um livro recheado de assuntos tão delicados como misoginia, muita homossexualidade reprimida (ou não), manipulação. Um plot twist um tanto quanto inusitado... Motivado pelo amor e os ciúmes. Sim, dentro do livro existe amor, amizade... Tem momentos de humor que quebram um pouco o ambiente extremamente violento. Não é uma leitura para estômagos fracos e também não é tão fácil falar sobre este livro, contudo, recomendo fortemente!

Un manga con una historia muy oscura y muy interesante. Llegó en perfectas condiciones y envuelto con un plástico protector

Lychee light club took me by surprise, I knew Usamaru Furuya would deliver and as a fan knew what he was capable of but after reading this book I was blown away. He presented a story of Love, Lust, Horror, Anger that grabs you buy the gut and drags you along until you hit the last page.The story revolves around A brotherhood of disturbed and sadistic called the "Light club". Organized meetings take place in an abandoned factory where they form and strong bond and disgust for anything outside of there cult like circle of brothers."Lychee light club" brings a taste of Japan's underground genre "ero-guro" to a western audience and delivers a fantastic read that will haunt you with its grotesque beauty.Must read for all veteran Manga readers or horror fans.

The manga arrived on time, 100% undamaged. When the manga arrived, I really didn't know what it was about, so I couldn't know what was awaiting me. It is definitely a different manga, in all senses. The atmosphere in the manga is amazing, really well done. Brutal, at times funny and crazy, this manga is a very good one-shot! Enjoy it!